


Strings & Wings

by insertfruitpun



Category: The Witchlands Series - Susan Dennard
Genre: Gen, Hats, Knitting, casual gretchya hate, minor profanity, threadfamily (the witchlands series)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-25
Updated: 2021-02-25
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:40:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29430396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/insertfruitpun/pseuds/insertfruitpun
Summary: I saw that one line about the hell bards becoming Safi and Iseult's threadfamily and I ascended. Six should-be functional adults vs. the concept of knitting.
Relationships: Aeduan & Owl (The Witchlands Series), Aeduan/Iseult det Midenzi, Iseult det Midenzi & Safiya fon Hasstrel
Comments: 9
Kudos: 4





	Strings & Wings

It had been far too late for footsteps when Aeduan heard them. It was bound to be a sleepless night for him, but that didn't mean he wanted to be disturbed in such late hours.

It had to be a bit after midnight. The insufferable ringing from a few minutes ago made that clear enough. Iseult always said that letting the empress handle the costs of the apartment as well as its position was a mistake. "It has more space than Safi and I will ever need," she said. 

The apartment was in the middle of an ever busy street, full of buildings with historical and cultural importance. All the things that an empress would want to be near to. Aeduan wasn't an empress, though, and he found the constant noise mildly annoying at best.

People walking around the apartment at night wasn't an unusual occurrence. When Iseult's threadsister allowed for him to stay in the guest room of their new apartment, she didn't let him pick between the two. Iseult said it was because the one he ended up in was bigger, and that Safi was just being nice.

But Aeduan knew he was not even close to winning her trust. And if putting him in the room right next to the only window in the hallway, which she made a point of closing or opening loudly at absurd hours of the night, was the worst thing she thought he deserved, then Aeduan could manage.

Even though Safi insisted that Aeduan was only a guest, he'd been there for weeks at this point. And when actual guests came, they piled up in the living room. Aeduan didn't feel too bad for taking the bigger guest room. There were rougher places to sleep than a carpeted floor. And, besides, if they really wanted to free up a room, someone would just have to gain the courage to tell Owl Blueberry could sleep outside for a few days.

The bat got his own room. It was never in question, because Owl insisted. In fact, Aeduan staying in the apartment was thought over for way longer. He didn't want to take up room, and he had a strong feeling that Iseult's threadsister didn't want him there either. But they got used to each other, over time. And neither of them could really say no to Iseult.

These weren't Safi's footsteps, though. They were light, but not in the way of those who wanted to be completely silent. And there were no annoying sounds following it. 

At first he thought it was Iseult - she moved around a lot at night - but then the footsteps became louder, and Aeduan could finally recognise them, and was finally able to tell it apart from all the other blood scents. He got up, ready to see what was bothering little Owl. She never complained about nightmares or monsters under her bed.

But before Aeduan could reach the door, he heard the door to the room across his open. It was Blueberry's room. Of course. 

Aeduan waited to hear the door close to confront the child. It didn't do well to wake Blueberry. Iseult had the scar to prove it. 

Owl didn't show any emotion at being seen. Aeduan was beyond glad that she wasn't afraid of him, but he couldn't imagine ever looking monk Evrane in the eyes when she caught him out of bed past the time it was allowed.

"It's Blueberry's birthday," Owl said. It wasn't an explanation, or an excuse. She said it as if Aeduan was already supposed to be aware of the fact. "I made him a hat. I can't wait to see him wear it in the morning."

Aeduan sighed. "Have you slept at all tonight?" The girl shook her head. Aeduan couldn't find it in himself to scold her, though. She looked weirdly excited about the hat. He couldn't take that away from her. "Go rest," Aeduan said.

Owl listened, but halfway through the hallway, she turned around. "You go rest." 

He ignored the unintentional arguing tone. It was the product of spending so much time with Safi, Aeduan knew that. But the only time he complained about something like it, he hadn't heard the end of it for days. It was safer to just ignore it.

"I'm not done with my gift yet." 

Owl seemed to think it was a satisfying answer. She went back to her room. Aeduan didn't return to his.

He knew Blueberry could probably handle a rock on his head to make Owl happy, but it seemed cruel to force the mountain bat to do it. Aeduan hated lying to Owl, and he was bad at it, but Iseult could always make up a story on the spot. Well, at least when it came to Owl.

Aeduan quietly opened the door to Blueberry's room. He was surprised to see that the hat was not, in fact, a rock. Just a mess of various blue fabrics and threads. Aeduan knew that blue was, apparently, Blueberry's favourite colour. How Owl came to the conclusion, he didn't know.

The hat wasn't a rock, but it wasn't exactly wearable, either. But Owl seemed excited, and Aeduan couldn't just throw it away. He just couldn't. She'd obviously put some effort into it, even if it didn't end up looking good.

In a moment of incredibly bad judgement, he took the hat back to his room. If Owl could figure out how to connect most of the fabric, so could he. How hard could it be?

As it turned out, very hard. Aeduan didn't even know where Owl found all the material she did. She went to the market with Safi and her friends the other day, but Aeduan didn't hear anything about them buying fabric. The market was reasonably close to the apartment, and Safi insisted that Owl could go alone when she wanted something. Aeduan disagreed, but Iseult took her threadsister's side. 

Iseult certainly had more first hand experience when it came to what children could and couldn't do. Aeduan's own childhood was lacking in trust, so he decided that Owl deserved it. And if something were to happen, Aeduan could always track down her blood scent.

He still insisted that Owl tell someone when and why she was going out on her own. And he hadn't heard anything about buying knitting materials.

But he could ask questions in the morning. What mattered in the moment was that Owl had them. Now Aeduan just had to piece them together. Somehow.

Safi didn't like being woken up at night, and she absolutely hated having to get up after it. But the plan Lev described had been so perfect that Safi just couldn't resist. 

Caden slept like a rock, according to Lev. A better opportunity for revenge wouldn't present itself for a long time. 

Safi and Caden had been getting revenge on each other every time they were in the same country. Neither of them knew what exactly the other did to warrant it, but Safi was sure that Caden deserved it. She could tell he felt the same.

Lev was absolutely delighted anytime she got to participate in one of what Safi preferred to call clever schemes even though Lev insisted were just petty pranks. Safi wasn't sure, but she thought that Lev must have helped Caden as well at times. That was a terrifying thought.

Lev led Safi to the living room, where Caden slept on the floor. Knowing her three friends, there was definitely an argument over who would sleep on the floor and who would take the couch and the armchair. Safi wasn't present, but she could imagine it clearly enough. All three were stubborn, self-sacrificing idiots. And Caden was the most stubborn of them all, apparently.

There was paint in the cupboard. Bright, expensive paint. It was one of the many gifts from Vaness, who greatly overestimated children. Safi didn't know if it was because she just so happened to be a painting prodigy as a kid, or if she just had no idea what kids were like. They were both likely options.

Iseult had mentioned once that Owl wanted to paint Blueberry's room, and Vaness went all out. Safi thought it was hilarious. And the look on the empress' face when Owl broke one of the very expensive brushes was something Safi would treasure till the end of her days.

Iseult had saved the other brushes in the set and hid them from Owl. The paint followed shortly, when Blueberry tried to join in on the painting. Vaness did not visit after that, preferring to invite them to Marstok instead. 

The cabinet it was in was under lock, but Safi broke it easily. She was no artist, which was what made the masterpiece she and Lev drew on Caden's face a masterpiece. Safi barely held her laughter until she was out in the hallway.

Lev and her had to paint in the dark. All three of the former Hell-Bards were light sleepers, and Safi couldn't risk having her plot discovered. She was anticipating the reveal of their masterpiece that was sure to happen in the morning. Safi didn't know if expensive paint washed off easier or harder than regular paint. It looked like she was about to find out.

The rest of the apartment was silent. Safi was almost to her room when she heard a string of profanity even she had to admire. 

Safi turned around. This was too good to just ignore. It took everything in her not to laugh even harder than before. Iseult's Bloodwitch was truly something else. 

She knocked on his door.

"I'm sleeping," came the disinterested response. Safi rolled her eyes and opened the door. She found Aeduan sitting on the floor, a dozen scraps of fabric on his lap and a knife stuck in his arm.

The night was just getting better and better. 

"If I said those things while a child was in the house, you would be upset." It was true. Safi got criticised for her colourful language on more than one occasion. Which was unfair, really, because the kid didn't even speak any languages other than Nomatsi. Iseult and Mathew refused to teach Safi anything remotely rude, and Safi still had to convince Aeduan to do it. If anything, Owl would teach Safi how to be a rebellious child.

"I'm not in the mood." Aeduan pulled the knife out of his arm, which made for quite a scene. There was a bit of blood, but the wound closed faster than Safi could imagine. She had yet to get used to it.

Safi sat on the floor across from him. "What's all this about?" 

There were many possible answers. Maybe he was looking for a new hobby, or maybe it was some weird monk thing. There were plenty of those. But the actual answer... Oh, Safi was absolutely delighted as soon as she heard it. 

"You're making Blueberry a hat?" Safi asked. She couldn't believe this. It was beyond hilarious. "With a knife and a chopped up shirt? I'm no expert, but that doesn't seem like knitting equipment."

"It's the best I have," Aeduan said. Safi had to laugh. The sincerity in his words just made everything so much more hilarious. Iseult had the most absurd taste in men, but at least it kept Safi entertained. 

"It's not, though." Safi was most certainly not being friendly or trying to make his life easier. She was just hoping to see as much of this insanity as she could. "Leopold got me the worst jumper ever. I don't mind you taking apart the yarn."

"Is it blue?" Safi raised her eyebrows. "Blue is Blueberry's favourite colour," Aeduan explained. Oh, this was just delightful.

"It's white, but we have paint. Good enough?"

Aeduan sighed, as if he was giving up on life, then nodded. "Should I wait for you here?"

"Absolutely not." Safi couldn't help him knit if no one else was there to witness it. They would never believe her, and then she wouldn't be able to make fun of him with anyone. 

So she just had to wake the whole apartment, minus Owl and Blueberry. It didn't seem very likely that she'd succeed, but she would try. The night was proving to be rather interesting, and Safi couldn't wait to see what else was going to happen.

Iseult was woken up by a loud sound she couldn't quite place. It wasn't uncommon - she shared a wall with Safi on one side, and with Owl on the other. They were both too stubborn to turn the lights on when going to the bathroom at night. Safi fell regularly, and Owl just sometimes. 

Iseult didn't have the luxury of turning her light on when she was ready. The moment she opened her eyes, the threads were there. It wasn't like they ever left, of course. Iseult didn't remember much of her dreams, but she was sure they probably appeared there, too. 

Iseult wasn't ready for her dreams to be over. But this time, the light and the noise was followed by voices. That was interesting.

"We don't want to wake the whole apartment up!" Aeduan whispered, loudly enough for her to hear even through a wall. But then Iseult sat up and noticed that her door was slightly ajar, not how she left it last night. Somebody wanted her to wake up.

"Of course not," Safi replied. Well, that explained everything. 

Or, almost everything. What were Safi and Aeduan doing together sometime after midnight? 

Iseult got up. She heard the door to Safi's room open and close. There was not a single boring day in Iseult's life lately, for better or worse. 

The door to Safi's room, on the left of hers, was open all the way. Iseult stepped in front of it, calling on the voice she used when she caught Owl out of bed. It wouldn't work on Safi, because it was so obviously a bad copy of the way Habim would yell at Safi herself when he'd had enough.

Not that Iseult yelled. She just spoke loudly when need be.

She waited for Safi and Aeduan to notice, but they were occupied. They had their backs to the door, so Iseult couldn't quite see what was going on. Just their threads, which confused her even more.

The closet, which stood right next to the door, was wide open, some clothes on the floor.

That was weird. Safi was nowhere near a tidy, organised person, but she didn't like wasting time. All the clothes she wore frequently were in the front, so she could take them easily. In fact, the clothes in the back were the ones she wouldn't be caught dead wearing. Mostly gifts from Leopold and Vaness. The prince and the empress had the fashion sense of, well, a prince and an empress. Their gifts were nowhere near practical. Nice, certainly. But Iseult herself had a cabinet filled with court dresses she never once wore, simply because a chance hadn't presented itself. She wasn't going to wear a floor-length gown to pick up some milk at the market. 

Safi did it a few times, when she went to visit Merik in Nubrevna. It annoyed him to no ends, and that was probably the only reason Safi hadn't gotten rid of the dresses. 

Merik himself had gotten a coat from Leopold once, probably the most practical thing the Cartorran ever bought. It still had enough colour to make someone wish they could gouge their own eyes out, but as far as Leopold's gifts went, it was among the best. 

Merik said he'd sold it for food, but Safi swore she saw it in his closet. 

Whatever Safi and Aeduan were doing that concerned the back of Safi's closet, it couldn't be good. Iseult took a step forward, ready to put a stop to whatever insanity was going on. It was a little after midnight, and Iseult had gone to sleep just about an hour ago.

But then Safi let out a pained sound, and dropped something to the floor. Safi refused to have curtains in her room, so the street lights made it possible to move around the room without falling. It was one of the reasons Safi never turned the lights on when walking around in the middle of the night, even thought the street lights were no help in the hallway. It was not, however, bright enough for Iseult to see what it was on the floor.

"I told you we should turn on the light," Aeduan said. 

"Oh, so it's my fault?" Safi waved her arm around, and Iseult noticed blood on it. "Not all of us can magically heal, you asshole."

Iseult had spent days worrying that there was still hostility between the two, but if Safi really thought Aeduan was an asshole, she would've said it in a much more creative way. Much, much more creative. 

If it wasn't the middle of the night, Iseult might have left them to their... Bonding activities. But it was, and there were guests in the living room and a child sleeping two doors away. 

"What the hell are the two of you doing?" Iseult asked, whispering as furiously as she could. She wasn't mad, not really. But showing emotions was hard on its own, and she promised Safi she'd try. The fact that the emotions she showed weren't exactly the ones she felt at the moment was irrelevant. She'd get there.

"Iseult!" Aeduan and Safi said, almost at the same time. Aeduan sounded surprised, and even a bit ashamed. Like a child caught doing something that they should not have been doing at all. 

Safi, on the other hand, sounded absolutely delighted, which showed in her threads.

They turned around, and Iseult saw a knife in Aeduan's hands. She had never been so confused in her entire life. "Did you just stab my threadsister?"

"No! Well, yes, but that wasn't the intention." Safi laughed. "We were just trying to take apart the yarn." 

So that was what was on the floor. "What the hell do you need yarn for?"

"So swearing is only a crime when I do it?" Iseult sighed. She did not have the energy for this, but going back to sleep without knowing what Safi and Aeduan were up to felt wrong. "We were just trying to knit a hat, Iz."

Well, now Iseult had even more questions. "A hat? For whom?" 

Maybe Iseult shouldn't have gotten up at all. At least that way, she wouldn't be in the kitchen at one in the morning, baking a cake for a mountain bat.

Now, Iseult could make food in a pinch, but baking? That was not her story. It was better than what was happening in the living room, though. Leagues better. 

Apparently, Aeduan was knitting. And Safi couldn't help but drag the entire apartment into it, excluding Owl and Blueberry. Or, as Safi called him the whole morning, Birthday Bat. Iseult was often subject to Safi's bad jokes, but even she couldn't resist the urge to roll her eyes at her threadsister.

It was when Lev suggested toothpicks as alternatives for knitting needles that Iseult officially gave up. She joined Caden in the kitchen, which was probably for the best. Iseult couldn't bake, but Caden couldn't be trusted to be in a kitchen unsupervised, as they'd learned a few days ago.

The only reason he volunteered was spite. He told Safi that he never wanted to be in the same room as her again. Iseult guessed that had something to do with the hints of blue paint on his forehead. It was such a Safi thing, though Iseult was surprised she used paint that could be washed off. Or, at least majority of it could.

Iseult had a recipe book. She'd never opened it, but she had it. It was Gretchya's attempt at smoothing things over with her daughter. It didn't work. Gretchya never tried again.

Iseult couldn't remember her mother ever actually making most of the meals she'd seen in the book. But the recipes were there, and they were undeniably written over time. Safi had the theory that it was all fake, written in the same day. A way to get back into Iseult's life without any effort. 

But that was anger speaking. If Safi thought about it logically, she'd realise that that door had closed a long time ago. Gretchya could try her hardest. Not that she would. A proper threadwitch didn't care that much, and if she did, she didn't show it.

Maybe it was good, then, that Iseult was never a threadwitch. And that nothing in her life was exactly proper. 

She couldn't imagine her life as anything other than what it was, and she liked it that way. Baking a cake for a Mountain Bat was not her plan, but so what? Sometimes things that were unplanned were better. 

Not that preparations for Blueberry's party were better than sleeping. Iseult knew she wouldn't close her eyes for hours, but somehow it didn't seem all that bad. Not when she was surrounded by people she cared about. 

Iseult had never experienced that before. She always had Safi, but, incredible as she was, her threadsister was still just one person. Iseult loved her dearly, and would follow her to the end of the Earth, falling into new adventures every day. But she liked this, too. 

The thrill of never staying in one place too long, the one Safi and Iseult had been so excited about for years, wasn't there. But so many other things were. Friends that became family, and sleepless nights spent laughing, and pure, unadulterated happiness, and-

"Iseult? I think I broke the big knife."

And the occasional insanity. But Iseult didn't mind. Not really. There were worse things.


End file.
